I Am Geek Hear Me Compute

“The Three Noble Principles: Good in the Beginning, Good in the Middle, Good at the End.” Pema Chodron

“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.” Dalai Lama

On a lark I took something called the Geek Test on line a couple of years ago. My niece had sent the link to me and wanted me to see what my score would be. I came out as a “Super Geek.” For the people who know me that was not a surprise at all. I have always referred to myself as a geek. I am very into science fiction and fantasy. I am mechanically inclined. I do my artwork now by computer.

The main problem with being a female and a geek is the attitude and prejudices of many people towards geeks. For a mundane the idea that anyone would be interested enough in a show to learn a made up language or go to or even run a convention where you meet the people responsible for your favorite form of entertainment or even the fact that we can sit and talk about the books, television, and movies we love is a waste of time.

Many people on the outside of fandom expect geeks to conform to a certain stereotype. You are supposed to be unattractive. You are supposed to have problems forming any meaningful relationships. You are supposed to be uninterested in the real world and be totally wrapped up in the world of make believe. You are supposed to be uninterested in things like sports. You are supposed to intellectually smart but lacking in common sense. If you are a woman you are supposed to be interchangeable with the male geeks.

The problem with stereotypes is that they are just that, stereotypes. They don’t take into account that geeks, like any other classification of people, are a collection of individuals. We are as different from each other as any other group of individuals. One of the things I found when I moved to this small Midwest town is that many of the people I encounter in everyday life feel that I am weird because of my interests. They fail to understand why a lot of my artwork has dragons and unicorns in it. Why I do a lot of pictures that are set in outer space. Why I would spend several months knitting a genuine replica of a Doctor Who scarf for my niece.

Many of the women I know in fandom are political activists. Many of us are interested in healthy lifestyles. I have so many friends that are diabetic that I put together a diabetic cookbook for them. I know and understand computers and how to get the most out of them. I find people who refuse to use a computer to make their lives easier weird. When arthritis made it difficult for me to do my artwork I taught myself how to do graphic art on the computer.

I was the main female influence in my niece’s life and I taught her how to be a geek. She is turn is teaching her daughter how to be one. I think it is important for woman not to be afraid of being geeks. We should be encouraging them to learn about math and science and computers. We need to encourage them to read and love science fiction and fantasy. They are the literature that teaches us to dream and reach for the stars.

I am a geek and proud of it and yes I did keep checking back yesterday to see who they were going to cast as the eleventh Doctor on Doctor Who.